Eight economists explain the origins of the euro crisis and look at what would happen if the currency were abolished

Ten years after Nato’s invasion, the Taliban are stronger that ever, and hopes for peace a long way off, writes Katherine Haddon.

US OFFICIALS said the Navy SEALs who stormed Osama bin Laden’s compound shot and killed him after they saw him appear to lunge for a weapon.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has called for a renewed sense of national purpose and pride at the annual 1916 state commemoration at Arbour Hill.

THE possibility that US spies located Osama bin Laden with help from detainees who’d been subjected to “enhanced interrogation” techniques seems certain to reopen the debate over practices that many have equated with torture, security experts believe.

North and South Korea battered each other with artillery fire today in one of the most serious confrontations since their war ended nearly 60 years ago.

The imam leading the effort to build an Islamic centre and mosque near the site of the September 11 attacks said he was exploring all options for a solution.

Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that Cuba’s communist economic model does not work, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has conspicuously steered clear of local issues since stepping down four years ago.

HOW do you solve a problem like Iran? As Richard Haas, president of America’s Council on Foreign Relations, and once the US envoy to Northern Ireland states, “what happens in the Middle East does not stay in the Middle East”.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak proposed a “grand bargain” today to restart disarmament negotiations and end North Korea’s nuclear arms programme.

Zimbabwe’s prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai has made fun of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s flagging political fortunes during a visit to the US.

US CONGRESSIONAL leaders agreed late last year to President George W Bush’s funding request for an escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilising its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online yesterday.

Wall Street barrelled higher today for the second day in a row, giving the Dow Jones industrial average its biggest two-day point gain five years after a Federal Reserve official hinted that the central bank may lower interest rates again.

ANGELINA JOLIE joined “the next generation of foreign policy leaders” yesterday, a leading US think-tank said.

Angelina Jolie joined “the next generation of foreign policy leaders” today, a leading US think-tank said.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern expressed his belief that a power-sharing executive would be up and running by the March 26 deadline.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will meet with UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and visit the Twin Towers memorial site with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg today.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will present the traditional bowl of shamrock to US president George Bush in the White House on Friday.

Actress Angelina Jolie arrived in Africa yesterday in her role as United Nations Goodwill Ambassador to monitor and raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The US envoy to the North is to step down at the end of the month, it was revealed tonight.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed disgust at photos that appeared to show German troops in Afghanistan posing with a human skull and pledged that any soldiers found to be involved would be punished severely.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has told an influential audience of US politicians that the DUP should stop making up new reasons not to share power with republicans.

As part of mock drills, warships participating in a large multinational exercise took off into the Turkish Mediterranean Friday in pursuit of a cargo ship said to be carrying weapons of mass destruction.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will unveil their plans today for securing devolved government for the North.

Irish republicans must quicken the pace of the transformation from violence to peace and democracy if there is to be any hope of a power sharing government at Stormont by November, they were warned tonight.

Russia’s emergence as an increasingly authoritarian state could impair US-Russian ability to cooperate on key international security issues, according to an analysis by a major foreign policy organisation.

The Pentagon will not close its Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorist suspects, despite UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s call to shut it down, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday.

THE US lags dangerously behind al-Qaida and other enemies in getting out information in the digital media age and must update its old-fashioned methods, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday.

A long stretch of river carrying toxins from a chemical plant explosion today flowed into a Chinese city where authorities shut off water supply to millions of residents for fear that the pollution could cause cancer.

BIRD flu has killed at least one person in China, officials said yesterday, confirming the spread of the deadly virus to people in another large Asian country where it might prove hard to contain.

SINN FÉIN leader Gerry Adams admitted yesterday he was disappointed with the White House snub to his party.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams admitted today he was disappointed with the snub issued to his party by the White House.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday he was misunderstood when he stated hours earlier that he knew of no “strong, hard evidence” linking Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and al-Qaida.

Sudan’s foreign minister yesterday dismissed claims by the UN that his country’s Darfur region is experiencing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, saying instead that atrocities committed there were caused by “tribal conflict”.

Worsening security, legal complexities and the lack of an Iraqi lawyer willing to represent Saddam Hussein make it impossible for the ousted dictator and 11 others to stand trial any time soon, a US official said today.

President George Bush’s U-turn plea for UN backed international help to run Iraq was welcomed in some surprising corners of the world today.

The United States remains “dangerously unprepared” to cope with another terror attack, a study found today.

Chief UN inspector Hans Blix criticised the US for insisting so vehemently that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and not producing the evidence.

The US intends to maintain a tight grip in Baghdad to “fill the vacuum of authority” while helping Iraq to create its own version of democracy, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said.

Former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz was being questioned today over the fate of Saddam Hussein and the whereabouts of chemical and biological weapons.

Tariq Aziz, Iraq’s former deputy prime minister and the most visible leader other than Saddam Hussein, was today in the hands of US forces.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell says he plans to have a “good, strong, candid” dialogue with Syrian officials when he travels to Damascus.

The US envoy to Northern Ireland, Richard Haass, is expected to announce his resignation next week amid growing speculation that he has become disillusioned with the Northern Ireland post.

Wall Street struggled through an ambivalent session today, with investors hoping to start a rally but ultimately selling on downbeat news from Home Depot.